American Express’ Sync program allows users to shop on Twitter using hashtags. The Twitter-based shopping medium is also an effective social media strategy to raise brand awareness.

Starting next Monday, American Express users who sync their cards will be able to buy items on Twitter by simply tweeting a hashtag, offers started pouring in yesterday. The first offer is a $25 AmEx gift card, which is available for $15 if you tweet #BuyAmexGiftCard25. You then get a confirmation tweet from @AmexSync with a new verification hashtag. Within 15 minutes the user must reply to the verification hashtag to complete the purchase. Doing so will allow the item to be shipped to the user’s address within two days.

This Twitter-based commerce is certainly an innovative method to allow more purchases as well as to promote the brand via social media. It looks like we are one step closer to a credit card/ social media merger. The only thing we can’t decide is if this is a good or bad thing?